Nick Cato's Blog, page 26

The Worm Detective...

THE BONE WORMS by Keith Minnion (2011 Cemetery Dance Publications / 156 pp / eBook)


Having recently raved over Minnion's short story collection, IT'S FOR YOU, I was happy to see one of my favorites ('Up in the Boneyard') turned into a short novel.  Minnion takes a classic horror set up (an ancient evil comes back to haunt the present day) and makes it work.


In 1921 and 1922, two young boys are affected by The Boneyard, a mystical realm that exists about twenty stories in the air over a certain section of Pittsburgh.  Flash ahead to 1983, where a series of grisly (and strange) murders have police baffled: it seems some lunatic is managing to steal his or her victims' bones while leaving the flesh behind with precision-neat slices in the skin; first responders to the crime scenes are also discovering organs and muscles neatly stacked in a separate corner of the room.  Enter Detective Sergeant Francis Lomax, a straight-up cop haunted by his father's lack of faith in him.  Francis happens to see things at each crime scene others don't, and with the help of a geeky librarian, manages to get on the tail of the killer...or killers...or thing(s).


THE BONE WORMS can be read in a sitting or two, will give those afraid of heights the willies, and supplies plenty of suspense and gut-wrenching violence.  In the hands of a lesser author, this standard plot could have easily gone south, but somehow Minnion makes it seem fresh.  Check it out.

Kung Fu Cheerleaders JUST SAY NO!

The latest installment of my column SUBURBAN GRINDHOUSE MEMORIES is now LIVE right here:
SGM Vol. 36: LOVELY BUT DEADLY (1981)
Enjoy...

Run Those Bastards Down!

THE DRIVER'S GUIDE TO HITTING PEDESTRIANS by Andersen Prunty (2011 Lazy Fascist Press / 98 pp / tp)
Prunty (a man who is happiest while napping in his tennis shoes) deilvers this collection of Bizarro short stories that range from the TRULY bizarre to the truly hysterical (and usually a combo of the two).
Among the more memorable are the epic title story, a sort-of take on DEATH RACE 2000 featuring an odd guy who spends most of his life in his van; 'Architecture' deals with a man who decides to build something truly different; 'Napper" is one of the funniest pieces here as Prunty shows off his classic Bizarro chops; 'The Balloonman's Secret' features an oddly out-of-place happy ending; I couldn't get enough of the idea behind 'Reading Manko' and neither will you if you're cool; 'Rivalry' takes neighborly scuffles to a new level, and 'Divorce' is classic Bizarro that readers either get or run away from crying.
Even the couple of semi-predictable tales fit in here and are satisfying.
While I enjoy prunty's novels, his shorts make for some good rapid-fire reading until the next one is unleashed.

My Bizarro/Apocalyptic Novella sold!

I'm thrilled to announce my 20K novella, THE APOCALYPSE OF PETER, has been sold.  More details when contracts are signed.  I've been shopping this one around for just over a year and finally found a publisher who doesn't consider it "Too weird" or "NOT weird enough."

When my happy dance ends I shall continue working on my 3rd novel as well as a new collaborative novel with the amazing L.L. Soares...

Easily One of the Best of 2011

FOR EMMY by Mary SanGiovanni (2011 Thunderstorm Books / 107 pp / tp)
Dana is Emmy's older sister, and they spend their after-school hours helping their father around his small book store.  One day Emmy goes missing from right under there noses.  With this simple premise the author takes us on a crash course of missing persons cases that branches into issues many may have never considered.  Within these short 107 pages I found more food for thought and downright eeriness than in just about all of the 60+ books I've read so far this year.
SanGiovanni's novella dealing with a missing five year-old girl did something few horror stories do (even of its ilk): it actually scared me.  And after all, isn't that what horror fiction is supposed to do?  Try reading this one alone late at night and you just might agree.  I can't recommend this one highly enough.
(NOTE: This review will also be appearing in the October Edition of THE HORROR FICTION REVIEW).

PREVIEW: Well Done Small Town Mystery

IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER by M.R. Sellars (To Be Released November, 2011 by Willow Tree Press / 327 pp / hc, tp, and eBook)


Special Agent Constance Mandalay is assigned to a case in the small town of Hulis, Missouri.  She's the latest in a string of FBI agents who have spent the past seven Christmas seasons attempting to uncover a murder that occurs each year--each one identical to a brutal crime that happened at the same location back in 1975.


Agent Mandalay has her share of suspects as everyone in Hulis seems to be holding back information.  Sheriff Addison "Skip" Carmichael (who was a rookie deputy at the time of the '75 murder) seems helpful and friendly enough, but Mandalay fears he, too, isn't telling her everything he knows about the case.


This is the first novel from Sellars to feature Constance Mandalay as a main character (she has appeared in Sellars' best-selling "Rowan Gant Investigation' series), and while she's not a typical over-the-top crime-novel detective, the author does a fine job with her as a straight-shooting agent (it was actually refreshing to see a cop without heavy past or present demons or addictions for a change).  Perhaps after the odd events she has endured in this novel, Sellars now has a bit more of a dark edge to grow the character from.


IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER is a well written mystery with a paranormal slant.  The gruesome murders and child-abuse back story will keep the attention of any fan of dark fiction. It's difficult to put down and will make a satisfying, spooky ready on a cold night this coming holiday season.


I'm looking forward to more from Sellars and Special Agent Mandalay.


(This review will also be featured in the October Edition of THE HORROR FICTION REVIEW)

Beastial Beasties Beat it HARD!

BESTIAL: WEREWOLF APOCALYPSE by William D. Carl (2008 Permuted Press / 298 pp / tp)


I finally got around to reading Carl's 2008 action-packed monster novel, close to the eve of its re-release through Simon & Schuster this December, 2011.


When a bunch of hoods hold up a bank in Cincinatti, things take a wickedly bad turn when the city is attacked by werewolf-like creatures.  Head thug Rick and head bank teller Chesya manage to survive the assault inside the bank's vault.  But when they emerge the next morning, they find their city in ruins.


Across town, a teenage runaway squatter named Christian thinks he knows what's going on.  It seems one of his Johns was a wealthy Frenchman who also worked at a bio lab.  When things seem safe outside of his building, he locates the man's lab and finds a notebook that may hold some answers to the devastation.  And finally, a middle-aged housewife is on a mission to find her lost son after receiving a telephone call from him amidst the chaos (while several end-time novels use this search-for-the-missing-kid subplot, this time it's done quickly and doesn't take much space).


Despite a couple of end-of-the-world scenarious that will be familiar to fans of the subgenre, BESTIAL has a relentless pace that forced me to finish it in two sittings.  And the werewolves aren't your typical werewolves; they also show signs of being part bear and part tiger, giving them a faster, stronger, and more lethal edge.  Carl also manages to flesh out his characters while keeping the action flying at a nearly non-stop pace, making me long to see more of them in the two promised sequels.


Apocalyptic novels have saturated the horror fiction scene over the past eight years or so...but when they're as well done as BESTIAL, it's easy to see why fans keep begging for more.

She Mates . . . THEN She Terminates!

My latest edition of SUBURBAN GRINDHOUSE MEMORIES is now LIVE over at CINEMA KNIFE FIGHT.  Check out my piece on the 1989 Indonesian action-trash classic, LADY TERMINATOR!
CINEMA KNIFE FIGHT: Lady Terminator

Top Notch Crime/Horror Novella

SAMSON AND DENIAL by Robert Ford (2011 Thunderstorm Books / 126 pp / tp)


Ford's supernatural crime novella is a quick, tight read with absolutely ZERO filler.


When Sammy (a Philadelphia street kid who now owns a pawn shop) finds his brother brutally murdered at the hands of the Russian mob (who have also kidnapped his wife), he's on a mission to get her back regardless of the overwhelming odds.  Along with his huge Desert Eagle handgun, Sammy's surprise weapon turns out to be a mummified head a junkie unloaded at his shop.


With smart street-wise dialogue, brutal violence, and even an all-female underground religious cult right out of a Jodorowsky film, SAMSON AND DENIAL reads like a pulpy b-movie without the unintentional laughs; it's a serious tale that'll appeal to horror and crime fans alike.  Great stuff.

Hooper's Debut Novel is EHhhh...

MIDNIGHT MOVIE by Tobe Hooper with Alan Goldsher (2011 Three Rivers Press / 316 / tp)


There's always a roll of the eyes when a famed horror film director tries his hand at a novel (Wes Craven, anyone?).  When I heard Tobe Hooper--director of my all time favorite horror film, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE--had written one, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it, especially after hearing that one of my buddies HATED it and another LOVED it.


For the first 100 pages, MIDNIGHT MOVIE had me hook, line, and sinker.  The pace was nice, the initial idea seemed great (a screening of an unseen Hooper film shot in his teenaged years somehow causes America to become a zombieland)  But right after this set-up section, the novel goes in several different directions, and I spent most of the time wondering if Hooper (and co-writer Goldsher) could bring it all together in the final act.


They do and they don't.


While I enjoyed Tobe Hooper as the antogonist (as well as the group of misfits who help him re-film his lost epic), and REALLY liked how the zombies are so in the background you hardly know they're there, there were so many other things going on I had a hard time staying focused on the story: besides the zombies, why did the screening of the film cause mass terrorist attacks and outbreaks of sexual frenzy?  And just who were carrying out these attacks?  The zombies, or some kind of splinter cells?  Is not a zombie invasion enough?  The authors seriously should've trimmed this thing down a bit (even at just over 300 pages, 75 could've easily been chopped without losing anything).


While the novel works fine as a metaphor for Hooper's views on the Hollywood system, and will make independent film makers proud of what they do, MIDNIGHT MOVIE--in the end--is a so-so offering that starts out fantastic then looses steam as it unfolds (the quick and blah conclusion doesn't help, despite some ends being decently tied up).


For Hooper fanatics only.